Rent and heating problems!

[peepsy]

Firstly sorry if this is in the wrong section I'm sure it will be moved if it is !

My girlfriend and I are living in rented accomodation and about three weeks ago my girlfriend smelt gas from the boiler so rang out the gas board who turned the boiler off. The long and short of it is, we have been left without hot water or central heating (a problem living in the far north of Scotland) for 3 weeks now with no sign of it getting fixed before the end of next week. Are we with in our rights to ask for a rent rebate ?

cheers,

G

[Plotloss]

Speak to the Landlord and mention in no uncertain terms you expect it fixed, ASAP.

You may, note the use of MAY, be entitled to withold rent legally as not having a boiler could be held to breach your implied right of quiet enjoyment of the property.

However that is only an advisable path to go down if the Landlord gets churlish.

[peepsy]

Yeah, dont want to push the landlord to hard until it is fixed!

[anonymous-user]

Check your terms and conditions in your rental agreemant! Then speak to your landlord or letting agent.

[davidjpowell]

But first speak to your environmental health department. In England the landlord has a legal duty to provide some heating and hot water, although the wehereabouts of the legislation escapes my mind. I'm pretty sure that there will be the same legislation in Scotland, and EH are the people who normally enforce it.